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Your brain starts eating itself when you don't sleep. This isn't a metaphor. This is actual biology. When you skip sleep, your brain activates microglial cells — the brain's cleanup crew — and they start devouring healthy brain tissue and synapses. Sleep deprivation for just 24 hours impairs your brain the same way having a 0.10% blood alcohol level does. That's legally drunk — and most of us walking around sleep-deprived are essentially operating that way. Long term? Chronic sleep depriva